Friday, May 14, 2010
The Chair in Philosophy: Heidegger
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Chairs In Memoriam
These chairs are beautiful monuments in a peaceful setting. Forest Lawn is located at 2001 Dundas St. East.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Chair-Spotting: David Mazzucchelli’s Asterios Polyp
“Wow. Modern.” Hana’s exclamation is an understatement: Asterios Polyp’s apartment is a veritable trove of iconic Modernist design. Or, looking at his décor in another light, Modernist clichés. Can you identify them all?
Asterios Polyp is David Mazzucchelli’s first solo graphic novel; he is known for work such as Batman: Year One and the acclaimed adaptation of Paul Auster’s City of
Polyp is the proud owner of the Eames Plywood Lounge Chair, Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Chair, Marcel Breuer’s Wassily or B3 Chair, not to mention a sofa by Le Corbusier, Eileen Gray’s E1027 side table, George Nelson’s Slat or Platform Bench, Isamu Noguchi's Prismatic Table, and what I think looks like Jean Prové’s Em Table beside the Eames. (If anyone can identify the central coffee table or anything else I may have missed, let me know!) And, when Hana brings in her reproduction Noguchi table, we learn that Asterios Polyp only owns genuine pieces.
The chairs were all created by furniture designers who were also architects: good design is organically integrated into all aspects of life, great and small. (Although “organic” is a funny word to use given the general perception of modernist design being rendered in glass, concrete and metal.) Polyp’s furniture choices display not only his commitment to design, but also his rigid arrogance. Yet, significantly, Mazzucchelli opens Asterios Polyp by giving us our first glimpse of Polyp’s apartment when it is in utter disarray and Polyp is in the nadir of his life: divorced, in debt, filthy and watching filth.
It is tempting to read this incident as a straightforward destruction of Polyp’s old life and the ideals symbolized by the chairs; however, I think the details resist such an interpretation. Hana’s tansu and Noguchi table also burn. Also, while Polyp is a professor of architecture and has won awards for his design, he is a “paper architect” – none of his designs have ever been built, unlike the icons of Modernist architecture whose furniture peoples his apartment.
But enough of my preliminary thoughts. I encourage you to go forth and read, or better, buy and read, Asterios Polyp and decide for yourself how the furniture builds meaning in the graphic novel!
Sunday, March 28, 2010
The Campana's Masterpiece
This is the Vermelha Rope Armchair in red. It is created using 500 meters of cotton rope and the intention is to make it appear randomly looped, but there is a structural method to the madness. It sits on an epoxy powder coated steel frame and has aluminum feet.
The style was imagined by Brazilian brothers Fernando and Humberto Campana in 1993. Although neither one intended to design, Fernando decided to try it after obtaining his architectural degree, and Humberto -who already had a law degree- wanted to join him, and their careers took off in the 1980's. They believe in the importance of using 'poor' materials and transforming them into something fantastical and 'opulent'. They certainly have done so with this piece.
Pricey, but it's definitely a conversation starter!
It is a very cushy, yet supportive chair. I found a couple other designs of note and I can't wait to tell you all about them. Want to have a seat? One Twenty is accessible by taking the Ossington bus south from the subway station. Just ask the driver to let you off as close to the address as possible.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Antique French Bistro Chairs
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Neil Diamond and the Deaf Chair
This post will be neither a discussion of chair history nor specific chair design, nor even a chair sighting. Instead, we shall tackle the essence of the chair. The unbearable chairness of being, if you will. (Am I always this lame? Answer: Yes.) Take it away, Neil!
I am, I said
To no one there
And no one heard at all
Not even the chair
I am, I cried
I am, said I
And I am lost, and I can't even say why
Leavin' me lonely still
- Neil Diamond, “I Am… I Said”
I first came across the lyrics of Neil Diamond’s 1971 hit song “I Am… I Said” in humour writer Dave Barry’s Book of Bad Songs. “‘And no one heard at all / Not even the chair’ – not even the chair?!” I was reduced to giggles at the thought of the chair deliberately refusing to listen. Being an ignorant and incredulous child, it took my mother some persuading to convince me that a) Neil Diamond is not only a real singer, but a famous one and b) this song was a hit, and a critically acclaimed Grammy-nominated one at that. I was duly chastised.
Diamond sings about being torn between
Oh, cruel chair! Are you, too, deaf to my pain? The design of a chair typically fits a single individual – providing relief and support to even a stricken and solitary person. To have a chair shun you is truly rejection and loneliness. Diamond appeals to no specific incarnation of chairness, but rather, to the abstract chair, the Platonic chair, the chair that is the very essence of chairness.
Ontological profundities! Diamond is asking questions that probe the anlage of being. What is the nature of the self? What is the nature of the self when one asserts one’s own being? What is the nature of the self when one asserts one’s own being if the world and the quintessence of the chair turn their backs upon you?
And one final question:
If a Neil Diamond cries “I am” and no one hears him, not even the chair, does he still make a noise?
(Answer: Hey, I guess that’s why we have a song.)